Aligning Technology to Strategy through Enterprise Architecture (2015)
The Business Challenge
- Multiple technologies that are expensive to operate and maintain.
- Various business processes not optimally enabled by technology
- Unable to align the many technologies and processes to deliver against the business strategy
The Goal
- Consolidate and streamline technology and processes to reduce costs
- Simplify and integrate business processes to improve productivity and reporting
- Reduce the number of non-standard business functions
- Implement changes without disruption to business
Our Approach
- Collaborate & Upskill
- Evaluate processes
- Evaluate technology
- Model existing processes and technology
- Optimise processes a and model future state
- Highlight risks and impacts
- Create Roadmap for solution deployment
The Solution
- A model showing an optimised future state of processes and technology, with risks and mitigation suggestions.
- A roadmap for the implementation of the solution
The Value
- Clear understanding of how to meet strategic business objectives
- Comprehensive plan to design and deploy a technology evolution solution
- Highlighted risks and impacts
- Socialised of the concept for greater project implementation success
IT Service Management Process Improvement (2014)
Background
In the first quarter of 2014, EMP set out to improve and document selected Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) processes and procedures. As a result of rapid growth the company needed to create transparency and clarity with respect to roles and responsibilities as well as process steps and activities.
Approach
Digiterra Consulting recommended its IT Service Management process improvement approach. This required an initial assessment of the core Change Management process, after which a prioritised list of action items would be addressed to close any gaps.
Initial Assessment
IT Change Management is the core controlling process for any organisation that needs to ensure changes are recorded, properly assessed and planned as well as thoroughly tested before risking business critical operations. The assessment compared existing EMP capability and maturity aspects against international IT Infrastructure management best practice guidelines (ITIL V3) and produced results for all governance, people, process, technology and quality assurance aspects of Change Management at EMP.
Assessment Results
EMP achieved an overall Maturity and Capability rating of 1.9 which meant the process lacked clarity, was informal, depended on individual performance and that there were limited level effectiveness and satisfaction with its performance.
Action Items
The ITSM Assessment highlighted various areas for improvement including, amongst others:
- Management commitment
- Process ownership
- Roles and responsibilities
- Policy and scope definition
- Process documentation
- Technology fit
- Training
- Meaningful reports
- Process metrics
- Ongoing Improvement strategy
An action plan to address these items was drawn up and an EMP improvement team assigned to address these, together with an ITSM Consultant from Digiterra.
Improvement Project
The idea was to spend up to 8 hours per week over a 6 month period and then to taper this down to 4 hours per week, to further refine the process and to monitor activities e.g. CAB, while in use.
Meaningful Management Information for Standard Bank (2015)
The Business Challenge
One of South Africa’s largest financial services groups was frustrated by a lack of good management information from their IT Service Management function. There was a lack of structure, no consolidated approach or clear reporting framework.
There was also a lack of alignment of metrics to KPIs to objectives and goals, thus reflecting a deficit of Information rather than abundance of knowledge. They required the development of IT Service Management process metrics and reports in line with industry best practices and standards.
The Goal
Develop a reporting model based on best practice ITSM process metrics, with a view to developing reports which would:
- Reflect the customer’s experience
- Measure the effectiveness
(capability and performance) of the processes - Produce relevant trending information across the various processes
- Add significant value to owners and managers for decision making purposes
Our Approach
- Agree framework and model
- Interviews with relevant stakeholders
- Analyse, Extrapolate & Consolidate data
- Compare Information to Best practice models
- Produce Graphs in Dashboards
The Solution
We presented graphs and charts in a dashboard for the client to easily see if they are meeting strategic and operational objectives. We provided a model and framework that client could plug and play into various tools.
The Value
Client data was linked to metrics, which were mapped to objectives to show performance against goals. The client’s data was converted into meaningful information for all relevant stakeholders to make better informed decisions faster.
Improved Service Proficiency and Delivery for Liberty (2015)
Liberty – SMPI Service Management Proficiency Index
Liberty had a requirement to assess the maturity and capability of their Group Technology Service (GTS) Service Management processes and operations, with a view to improving GTS service proficiency and delivery.
The project aimed to understand and report on Liberty GTS Service Management proficiency to identify any required changes and ultimately to improve GTS service delivery.
The project consisted of a series of workshops that comprises one-on-one or group sessions (conducted by an ITSM consultant) with various key stakeholders, to gather information and evidence of existing GTS service management proficiency.
The data and evidence was collated, analysed and a proficiency report was produced that highlighted gaps and provided recommendations for improvement.
An action plan (in conjunction with the key Liberty stakeholders) was developed to close any gaps.
The assessment was completed within two months and the gap analysis report and roadmap was delivered three weeks thereafter.
The report and action plan allowed Liberty to focus on specific activities to improve service proficiency and delivery.
ICT Governance, Compliance and Consistent Quality Service Delivery for Advtech (2015)
IT Service Management Improvement
AdvTech
AdvTech IT had a requirement to optimise their IT Service Management processes and operations, with a view to improving IT service proficiency and delivery to ultimately ensure consistent quality and to meet ICT and Business Goals.
The project focussed on improvements of specific IT Service Management processes (based on current challenges). The project consisted of workshops with various key stakeholders to understand existing proficiency, identify gaps and plan for improvements.
Our IT Service Management consultants delivered a strategy, overall process performance dashboard and detailed process flows enabled AdvTech to streamline operations and manage process outcomes and performance.